Oladipo and Heat stressing patience after return: ‘I just got to be patient with myself’
The buzz word since Victor Oladipo made his season debut two weeks ago: patience.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has made sure to repeatedly emphasize the team’s patient approach with Oladipo. And Oladipo has made it clear that he knows it will take time to return to form following an 11-month recovery from surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee last May.
Oladipo has played in four of the Heat’s seven games since making his return in a March 7 win over the Houston Rockets. He missed one game as a precaution on the second night of a back-to-back set, and he’ll miss his second straight game on Monday night against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center because of lower back spasms.
There doesn’t seem to be too much concern regarding Oladipo’s back issue, as coach Erik Spoelstra said following Monday’s shootaround session in Philadelphia that Oladipo is “just rehabbing and trying to get ready for Wednesday” when the Heat hosts the Golden State Warriors. Oladipo did not travel with the team to Philadelphia.
Injuries, surgeries and long rehabilitation periods have forced Oladipo, 29, to learn the value of patience in recent years. He has played in just 56 regular-season games since the start of the 2019-20 season, as he needed two surgeries on the quadriceps tendon in his right knee after initially undergoing a procedure in January 2019 before returning a year later in 2020 and then going through the same surgery a second time in May 2021 with the Heat.
“It’s probably the most important thing that I have to focus on is being patient mentally,” Oladipo said to the Miami Herald just days before lower back spasms became an issue. “Because when it comes to the game, you build a certain expectation and you build a certain feeling for it. Right now, it’s just different. I have to be extremely patient with myself, my body and understand it’s a unique situation for myself. It’s been a very long time since I’ve played basketball. I just got to be patient with myself.
“I think I learned patience throughout the whole situation from the very beginning when I first got hurt to then getting the surgery done and it wasn’t done right and getting hurt again. I think it builds patience even if you don’t want it to. I just got to remain positive, patient, confident and consistent, and everything else will take care of itself.”
Oladipo has averaged 5.5 points while shooting 45 percent from the field and 2 of 9 (22.2 percent) from three-point range, 1.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 16.3 minutes in four games this season.
With just 10 games remaining on the Heat’s regular-season schedule following Monday’s matchup against the 76ers, there isn’t much time to ramp up ahead of the playoffs. But Oladipo and the Heat are making sure that patience remains the buzz word.
“I think it’s a mindset thing and I think you just have to keep feeding your mind as you feed your body,” Oladipo said of remaining patient. “As I work out and get my body to adapt to the circumstances, I have to do the same with my mind. I think if I do that, then everything else will take care of itself. I know it’s going to be a process, I know it’s not going to be easy, I know it’s a different situation for myself. So with that being said, I just have to focus on getting better. I’m not really focused on the outcome or the circumstance. Eventually everything will click.”
Does Oladipo think about how long he may need to feel like the pre-injury version of himself?
“I really don’t,” he said. “I really am not thinking about that or know about that. You can’t really control that. You just control every day, one day at a time. I’m just focused on staying in the moment.”
BASKETBALL TOWN
Spoelstra and the rest of the Heat’s coaching staff gathered at the team’s hotel in Philadelphia on Sunday night to watch the Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team defeat the Auburn Tigers to advance to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.
Spolestra came away impressed.
“It was a lot of fun,” Spoelstra said. “We all watched it as a staff last night, all the games. UM has a really fun team to watch. I even texted that to coach [Jim Larranaga] after the game. They’re like must-see TV. I love how they play, I love how they defend and share the ball offensively. It looks like they’re having a lot of fun, as well they should be. It’s just a great time of year and well earned for them to get on to that next round.”
Spoelstra also enjoyed watching former Heat assistant coach and close friend Juwan Howard lead the Michigan Wolverines past the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday to move on to the Sweet 16.
Following that game, Howard created a viral moment when he stopped and embraced Tennessee freshman Kennedy Chandler, who was emotional after losing. This comes just one month after Howard went viral for taking a swipe at a Wisconsin assistant coach during the handshake line.
“What happened after the game and him offering some really kind words to that young player, that’s the Juwan Howard we all know,” Spoelstra said of Howard’s moment with Chandler. “He has so many of those kind of stories that nobody has any idea about that because it wasn’t on camera. But it was cool for everybody else to see that side of him.”
INJURY REPORT
Spoelstra said Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin will play against 76ers. Butler (sprained right ankle) and Martin (hyperextended left knee) were listed questionable for the contest.
Oladipo, Gabe Vincent (right big toe contusion) and Kyle Guy (G League) are out for the Heat.
The 76ers, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, will be without their All-Star duo of center Joel Embiid (back soreness) and guard James Harden (left hamstring injury recovery) against the Heat. Both Embiid and Harden played on Sunday night against the Toronto Raptors.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
